Memphis homeowner lauds efforts of city police

Having your home broken into doesn’t have an up-side but finding the local police department right there with strong support and concern certainly helps. Just ask the Memphis homeowner who recently had nearly $30,000 in property removed from his house after a break in on March 14.

“Our police department did a fantastic job and the Memphis Police Chief is just doing an outstanding job and I was so impressed with them, even when they first showed up at my house,” the homeowner, who did not wish to be identified out of concern for being a target of future bandits, told The Voice.

The home, in the 80000 block of Belle River Road, was broken into March 14. The homeowner returned to the residence at 6:10 p.m. to find the front door of his home had been kicked in and immediately called the police.

“Two officers were at my home within three minutes, a third one arrived and then while two searched the house and cleared things, the other officer stood outside with my wife and I was just really impressed with that,” he said.

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Traveling home from his job in Oakland County, the homeowner said he was obviously concerned for his wife. Realizing officers were there, standing alongside her in their garage while an evidence team from the St. Clair County Sheriff’s office took care of things in his home, made the commute easier.

“My wife means everything to me and the Memphis officers were right there, standing by her and supporting her, they never left her side,” the homeowner said.

A resident of the city since 2000, the homeowner said he’d had occasion to meet some of the officers while out in the community but never at this level and he was duly impressed.

“The chief, Jessica, is a young woman and she just does such a great job, she said she will do everything she can to get our things back or find out what happened and I believe her,” the homeowner said. “Just yesterday she text(ed) me again asking for more information so she can track things.”

Beels said the case is still open while investigators continue to try to locate the stolen property and sort out details. She said it’s believed there have been 20 related break-ins in St. Clair County this year already.

The investigation in Memphis did prompt officers to question neighbors on both sides of the home but no one saw anything unusual that day.

“No other break-ins have been reported here,” Beels said. “And these suspects were not going for the smaller items, the list of what they took, including pulling TV’s right off the walls, is long.”

As previously reported in The Voice, five people have been charged in connection with a home invasion spree in northern Macomb County that targeted dozens of homes. They are now thought to be linked to burglaries in St. Clair and Lapeer counties.

Christopher Knotts, 32, and Jennifer Wilcox, 27, both of Richmond, and 41-year-old Michael Morelli of Marine City were arraigned Monday, March 18 in 42-I District Court in Romeo on three counts of second-degree home invasion. Kevin Crockett, 21, of Fair Haven, is charged with conspiracy to commit second-degree home invasion, receiving and concealing stolen property and firearms. Jonathan Johnson, 22, of New Haven, faces one count of receiving and concealing stolen property.

The Memphis home invasion included the theft of jewelry, firearms and electronics valued at $30,000.

As details continue to unfold in the case, the Memphis homeowner said the incident has obviously been “very disturbing” and unnerving, but he was happy to find out local police are responsive.

“They treated us like family, here our house had been broken into and they were so concerned about us and were just great the whole time,” the homeowner said.

In fact, going above and beyond regular duties, the homeowner said officer Thomas Williams showed up at their home for three nights in a row after the break in just to reassure them and make sure everything was OK.